Role of Essential Nutrients as Tools for Reducing Arsenic Hazards in Chilli (Capsicum annuumL.)

Abstract

Capsicum annuum L. was treated with arsenic (As) in pot culture condition to substantiate hazardous effects on growth and biosynthesis of some biomolecules with coexisting effects of essential nutrients namely, manganese (Mn) and phosphate (P). Treatments were applied to plants after 20, 50 and 80 days of transplanting as a soil application. Arsenate (5 mg As kg -1 soil) showed somewhat stimulatory effect on growth and biosynthesis of soluble sugar and soluble protein at the stage of 30 days but at later stages of growth, arsenate was found to be obstructive for fresh and dry shoot weights as well as root weights. Fresh and dry leaf weights and leaf area gradually decreased with increasing concentrations with more doses of As. Arsenic showed significant adverse effect on leaf length and stem diameter of chilli plant. The duration of exposure to arsenate stress was negatively correlated with partitioning of dry matter accumulation. The inhibitory effect of arsenate was less pronounced at the beginning but increased with time. It decreased soluble sugar content, protein content and finally the yield of chilli in the later stages of growth at high concentrations of arsenate. The application of manganese (1 ppm), phosphate (13 mg kg -1 soil) separately and together exhibited significant helpful alterations of all the growth and biochemical characteristics tested under the purview of arsenate treatment alone. In conclusion better growth and yield was observed with the application of manganese and phosphate in chilli seedlings by declining As hazards in arsenic infested soils.

Bioremediation Trends on Mitigation of As(III), Cr(VI) and Organic Dyes From Aqueous Medium using Plant and Microbial Biomass: An Overview

“…Heavy metals are generally transported and deposited in the vacuole as metal chelates. Plant tissues take up free metal ions from the solution as metal chelates using specific high affinity ligands (like oxygen-donor ligands, sourdine ligands, and nitrogen-donor ligands), for example, carboxylic acid anions which are abundant in the cells of terrestrial plants and form complexes with divalent and trivalent metal ions of reasonably high stability (Girhepuje et al, 2015). The anions present in the cell vacuoles of photosynthetic tissues are carboxylates of tartaric acid, malic acid, citric acid, etc which may combine with metal ion concentrations in plants.…”